Italian Easter Bread
March 19, 2008 
Buona Pasqua! I've made this Easter bread for years for my kids. It's a sweet bread, made with milk and sugar and has an Easter Egg in the middle! There's a lot of Italian recipes for Easter breads, some are savory and some are sweet. This one is fun.
- 1 package Rapid Rise yeast
- 1.25 cups scalded milk, cooled to room temperature
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3.5 cups flour (approximate)
- 1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
- 6 dyed Easter eggs
- sprinkles
tip: the Easter eggs do not need to be hard boiled. They cook when the bread bakes. I usually just dye the eggs right out of the fridge, without hardboiling them. Saves time. Just be careful they don't crack!
Instructions:
In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, warm (not hot) milk, salt, butter, eggs and sugar. Add about half the flour and beat until smooth with dough hook. Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Don't worry about how much flour it ends up being, just keep adding until the dough is not sticky anymore. Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
Punch dough down, divide into 12 pieces. Roll each piece to form a 1 inch thick rope about 14 inches long and, taking two pieces, twist to form a "braid", pinching the ends, and loop into a circle.
Place on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until double, about an hour again. Brush each bread with beaten egg wash. Put on the sprinkles. In the middle of each bread ring, gently place an Easter egg, making an indentation with the egg.
Bake at 350 degrees until golden - about 20 - 25 minutes. Cool on rack.
** Note: For an updated version of this bread, see my most recent Easter Bread post. It's made with golden eggs and pearl sugar:
You might also like to try Italian Easter Torta (Torta Pasqualina):
Reader Comments (125)
I absolutely love you site. It all brings back so many memories of my childhood and the foods we ate...thank you so much., I am passing this on to my children and my grand children=...making memories for them and of their heritage.
My cousin just sent me this link. Yours is the recipe she used this year. We grew up making Torrelles every Easter. It's interesting in that the recipe I've always used, which came originally from my Great Aunt who grew up in Calabria, is completely different from yours. Really, practically the only thing they have in common is the fact that an egg is baked in the middle. The dough is totally different. I wonder if the difference is a regional thing?
Rosemarie,
Why don't you share your Easter Bread recipe with us. Always interested in different ones.
Does your family make Cassata?
Ron
Hi Ron,
I don't recall anyone in my family ever making Cassata. I've cut and pasted the Easter Bread recipe I use below.
Zizi Betty's Torrelles
Ingredients:
Approx 13-15 eggs (6 for dough, 1 for brushing, another 6-8 for centers.)
3/4 C. Veggie Oil
3/4 C. Sugar
6 TSP Baking Powder
1 Tbsp Vanilla
3 1/2 C. Flour
Pinch salt
Take approx 6-8 eggs and hard-boil them. You can also color them like Easter Eggs.
Beat 6 eggs, sugar and oil together, then add vanilla.
Add 2 cups of the flour and salt.
Keep slowly adding flour while stirring/kneading until you reach proper consistency.
Artistically wrap/braid bread around hard boiled eggs. Get creative with the designs. :)
Beat last egg in cup, brush it on torrelles just before placing them in oven.
Bake 350 degrees until golden brown.
Also worth noting: I've read through all the other comments, and several people state that they don't eat the egg in the middle if the torrelle is over a day old. This is very silly and wasteful in my opinion. We leave them covered on the counter and take several days to finish them, and the egg in the middle is always fine to eat.
Rosemarie,
Wow, your recipe for Easter Bread is different... no yeast...no waiting for it to rise twice... should cut down on the prep time. It looks like the baking powder is providing the lift to the dough. Does it add any metalic taste to the dough?
I am going to try it... if it works for me, it would cut the All-Day Easter Bread making process.
Thanks,
Ron
Hi again Ron,
Yeah, the dough takes no time at all to prepare. The most time consuming part is hard-boiling the eggs. You don't taste the baking powder at all, and actually the dough expands quite a bit when it's baking. The thing you really taste in the bread is the egg in the dough. It's a very protein rich bread. Also, it has a somewhat scone-like consistency. It's really quite excellent with coffee in the morning. I imagine if you substitute butter for oil than the consistency would change quite a bit. I've never tried that personally since I like it so much just the way it is.
Also, I just noticed in the instructions I forgot to mention adding the baking powder. You'd add it in around the same time you are adding the flour and salt. Oops! :)
Have fun with it. Let me know how it turns out. :)
My Nunnie was from Italy & taught me as a young girl how to make Italian Easter bread, along with many other Italian recipes & I believe I was around 13 at the time. However when I became a young adult & was just starting a family she sadly passed away & I never got the chance to have her show me again how to do it. I did get copies of all her recipes & although I could close my eyes & see the memory of the day she had shown me how I was afraid that I might mess the recipe up somehow without her there to walk me through it. Her recipe also called for the refrigerated block of yeast which cannot be found where I'm living. So I came across your website. Although I really wanted to make her exact recipe (& was unsure how to substitute the refrigerated block of yeast with the dry yeast) I decided it was time to give up the frustration & just give your recipe a try. I have to say I was so very pleased with the results. I made a double batch for Easter this year & they came out so beautiful & very delicious! I just wanted to say Thank You & that I too love to cook & bake & share with friends & family so I absolutely LOVE your website!
I am soooooo happy to have found your site !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My grandfather raised me and he was an Italian Grandfather.... I miss him so much... he raised me as if I was his own,., best father in the world. My grandmother who was not Italian, but American Indian, but she did so much to continue his heritiage.. annnnyywayyyyy... When I saw this post it made me wish for Easter, I do have some of the things grandma made but your site gives me warm fuzzies from my childhood.... thank you so very much.....
Every time I stop in to find or review a recipe,,, I just feel the need to tell you thank you ...... you are my only connection to my Grandfather and his heritege....... thank you....
I grew up with these every year. Either made by my grandmother Nunny or my mom. Will have to start the tradition again. Pretty sure this is the same recipe as I remember the scolded milk!
I made the Easter egg bread last year and has become one of my favourite baking items. I make a batch weekly for my elderly Italian parents and love the big smiles when thy bite into bread. Love your blog.
Hi, I would like to make your Italian Easter Bread recipe; however, I need to make it in large quantities (15-16 large loaves). Is there a way that I can safely increase your recipe without causing problems? Thanks so much! I made the recipe as is and the bread is "squisito e fantastico!"
I just came across this last night when my daughter posted a picture of it and it jogged my memory of wonderful past memories when my dear grandmother would make this. (She was from Calabria). I would like to make this the night before and bake it the next morning. What about having it all ready to bake and putting it in the frig for the night, then in the morning letting it rest for a time to get to room temp and then bake? Do you have some helpful ideas on that?
i made this last year and cannot wait to make it this year!
I did a trial run of this bread and everything turned out perfect except for the eggs! They weren't cooked all the way through. Any suggestions?
Thank you :)
From The Italian Dish:
Tamara: I have never heard of the eggs not being cooked. That's almost impossible! I have no idea why that would happen. Has never happened to me! Sorry, but I'm stumped.
From The Italian Dish:
Dianne: You can make the bread the night before and refrigerate it but I would not do the final assembly with the eggs until the morning. The bread will still rise some in the fridge overnight, and it will rise too much and disturb the eggs.
What a delight to find your blog (I've already added it to my favorites!). My Grandma used to make these (we called them Pupa Ca'Lova in our Sicilian family) every Easter. We have not had them since she passed in 1996. The second I saw your beautiful photos my heart just filled with an overwhelming sense of family and happy memories. I am going to make these tomorrow as a surprise to bring to my family's Easter celebration this Sunday. Happy Easter (and, thank you).
Thank you so much - they turned out wonderful!!! Family loves them and we will make every Easter :
made these and my 82 yr old mom was impressed. The texture was perfect the eggs cooked and a total delight. Will use this and make every year. My mom and grandmother made theirs like rabbits but the basket shape is so easy to do
My mom makes this bread every Easter, it is delicious! We lost our recipe so thank you so much for this site.
Great Blog!! I love this website!
This recipe was fantastic . I took to an Easter Vigil celebration and everyone loved it.
Wow this was the hit of my Easter dinner. Not only did it look beautiful on my dinner table, it was such a sweet yummy bread. Thanks so much for the wonderful recipie. I love all of your recipies!